Inquiry Ideas. Growing Inquirers: The Student-Centered Assignment

You Can’t Grow Sunflowers in Marigold Pots

If sunflowers are the kids and the pot is the school, how do we grow the learner to his full potential? How does inquiry factor in as the agent of success in that process? Conversely, how does rote learning, teacher-directed instruction, or content coverage keep those “marigold kids” in a production line preparation for life? How does the school librarian or teacher germinate, cultivate, and reap the bounty of student-centered learning and the inquiry process? What is the nature of the deep, rich, fertile, productive learning environment that grows “sunflower kids?"

Inquiry has come into its own. Recent standards in social studies and science, along with the Common Core, have tap roots in brain-based learning and inquiry. Neuroscience informs instructional shifts to optimize the success of the learner. One central, all-encompassing shift which is integral to inquiry is the emphasis on student-centered, versus teacher-directed, learning. Relevance also ascends to a high degree of importance.

By its very essence, inquiry is self-directed. At each step in the inquiry process, the learner constructs personal meaning and deep understanding. The learner connects with the inquiry process and the content. By contrast, in a rote environment, the learner is a passive recipient of teacher-talk or end of the chapter review for a test.

Preparing the Inquiry Soil

As a cognitive model, inquiry connects the learner to his or her own world. Authentic work engenders buy-in and motivation. The brain knows that the learning is important, and not background noise to be wiped from its figurative hard drive. Self-directed learners exhibit ownership, personal responsibility, curiosity, even critical judgment about the quality of resources or products. “This project is mine and it has to be good” are words from a kid in a sunflower pot. The evidence makes it apparent that the preparation of the soil pays off!

Opening the door to inquiry invites each learner to wonder, ask questions, tap into prior knowledge, and move around in the landscape of a new discipline. Mastering the vocabulary of a content area empowers each individual learner to access facts, construct main ideas, and ask bigger and informed questions. Interaction with background building elicits personal and group response, frames early perspectives, and prompts focus, interest, choice, thinking, and decision making.

The school librarian or teacher who instead simply launches curriculum via an announcement, plunges into chapter three, and is the center of the learning universe causes students to blink and hold tight to their marigold pot.

Cultivating Seedlings

As the inquiry process moves beyond wonder, questioning, and background building, the learner progresses to individual or group decision making. Learners focus on developing a meaningful question and purpose for investigation. The power of choice kicks in. Practice from the teacher directed realm, such as assigning topics or providing preapproved lists of topics, offers a sharp contrast on many levels. The often heard howl, “Why do we have to do this?” is not an issue in inquiry.

Framing the investigation in a meaningful essential question or overarching big idea naturally leads to the cultivation of seedling ideas for problem solving, argument, or evidence-based claim. Teachers and librarians who support the development of student research questions take on the role of coaches. Instruction is provided to improve performance and develop skills at the point of need. Relevance prompts that hungry and energetic investigation exhibited by self-directed researchers.

Strong connection to the learner’s world is like sunshine and rain for seedling ideas and evolving investigations. The “is this enough?” groan is not even a remote possibility. Self-directed learners in student-centered learning environments often exceed expectations for quality. Synthesizing multiple information resources, interrogating points of view, and drawing original conclusions all generate robust learning outcomes with intrinsic rewards such as confidence, personal agency, and independence.

Harvest Time

Student-centered teaching and learning builds to a climax when a knowledge product is generated and shared with a meaningful audience. In social studies, authentic civic action is a capstone of self-directed learning. Learners can tackle real world problems and address significant issues. They are reinforced in their efforts by success, by expressing their original ideas, by producing meaningful work, by interacting with peers. Critical thinking, metacognition, and reflection empower the learner in a generative learning experience. Creativity, use of digital media, personal expression, skilled use of information tools thrive when a school librarian is a guide by the side. A sunflower kid grows. Picture the potential!